A bill prohibiting tolling within 15 miles of Indianapolis failed to get enough support in a Senate committee Tuesday morning and will not advance.

Senate Bill 69, introduced by Republican Sen. Mike Delph of Carmel, would have barred the Indiana Department of Transportation from adding tolls to I-465 and the other interstates within the I-465 loop.

Gov. Eric Holcomb has said he has no plans to add tolls on loops around cities and last fall instructed INDOT to remove the I-465 corridor from any further tolling studies. However, that restriction isn't written into Indiana law. INDOT also has not ruled out studying other interstates in the Indianapolis area.

"I filed this bill as a way to try to bring INDOT to the table and publicly state once and for all INDOT's intention of not wanting to toll I-465," Delph said. "This is a trust-but-verify process for me."

INDOT spokesman Scott Manning said the agency had nothing to add to Holcomb's earlier statement.

"The governor addressed the I-465 issue pretty definitively in his statement back in October," Manning said.

Delph views the tolling of I-465 as double taxation on his constituents who rely on I-465 to travel north and south and are paying the increased gas tax lawmakers passed during the past legislative session.

Lawmakers approved a road-funding bill that both increased the gasoline tax by 10 cents per gallon and cleared a way for tolling by asking the Holcomb administration to study the issue. The goal was to generate $1.2 billion in revenue the state estimates is needed to maintain and repair roads each year.

The bill also gave Holcomb's administration more freedom to toll roads without having to get the approval of the entire General Assembly. Only the State Budget Committee's approval would be required.

During committee discussion on the road-funding plan, Senate leaders told Delph that I-465 would not be tolled. When he tried to file an amendment prohibiting the tolling of I-465, he said he was instructed not to because "it would create other issues."

INDOT already is moving ahead with plans to study the remaining interstates. This month INDOT selected consulting firm HNTB to examine tolling in the state and is negotiating a contract with the firm.

In its proposal, HNTB said it could help the state collect toll revenue by 2021.

Several lawmakers in the Senate Homeland Security and Transportation Committee were concerned Tuesday about the future prospect of tolling but didn't see Delph's bill as a fix. Senate Bill 69 wouldn't prohibit tolling on any interstates outside Indianapolis, which would have excluded most lawmakers' districts. Several Senators also live in districts where a toll road already exists.